Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 5000 metres

The Men's 5000 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany took place on 7 and 10 September 1972.[1]

Men's 5000 metres
at the Games of the XX Olympiad
VenueOlympic Stadium
DatesSeptember 10
Competitors61 from 35 nations
Winning time13:26.4 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Lasse Virén
 Finland
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Mohamed Gammoudi
 Tunisia
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Ian Stewart
 Great Britain
← 1968
1976 →

Having won the 10,000 metres a week earlier, Lasse Virén controlled the pace through the first 2000 metres in 5:32.61. David Bedford, tired of the slow pace, passing Viren and leading a crowd to go around to a faster pace. As the pace accelerated, Javier Álvarez came from the rear around the field to take the point for the next kilometre. At 3200 metres, Nikolay Sviridov challenged for the lead.

Steve Prefontaine[2] took the lead at 3400 metres. Over the next lap, Viren came from sixth place in line to mark Prefontaine. Viren was in turn marked by Emiel Puttemans. A five-man breakaway formed. With 850 metres to go, Viren passed Prefontaine. Down the back stretch, Prefontaine strained back into the lead. 50 metres before the bell, Viren took the lead again, with Mohammed Gammoudi breaking off the remaining group to mark the leaders.

Down the final backstretch, Gammoudi eased around Viren while Prefontaine hit almost a full sprint to get on Gammoudi's shoulder. With 200 to go, Prefontaine relaxed and Viren moved ahead of him. Prefontaine surged again to keep pace. In the middle of the final turn, Virén changed gears into his full sprint, taking the lead. Gammoudi couldn't keep pace and began to watch Prefontaine while trying to hold on to the silver medal. Mid-straightaway all three checked the position of their rivals as Prefontaine took one more surge after Gammoudi. As it was quickly clear he couldn't make enough progress, Prefontaine strained. Ian Stewart came from the chasing group in full sprint gaining rapidly. As Stewart caught him from behind, Prefontaine fell apart, struggling the final steps.[3][4] He was killed in a car crash in 1975.

Virén successfully defended both titles in 1976.

Results

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Heats

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Qualification rule: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 4 fastest (q) advance to the Final.

Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes
1 2 Emiel Puttemans   Belgium 13:31.8 Q
2 2 Steve Prefontaine   United States 13:32.6 Q
3 4 Juha Väätäinen   Finland 13:32.8 Q
4 4 Ian Stewart   Great Britain 13:33.0 Q
5 2 Harald Norpoth   West Germany 13:33.4 q
6 4 Mariano Haro   Spain 13:35.4 q
7 2 Javier Álvarez   Spain 13:36.6 q
8 3 Ian McCafferty   Great Britain 13:38.2 Q
9 3 Frank Eisenberg   East Germany 13:38.4 Q
9 5 Lasse Virén   Finland 13:38.4 Q
9 5 Nikolay Sviridov   Soviet Union 13:38.4 Q
12 3 Per Halle   Norway 13:38.6 q
13 5 Josef Jánský   Czechoslovakia 13:39.8
14 3 Dušan Moravčík   Czechoslovakia 13:40.4
15 5 George Young   United States 13:41.2
16 3 Paul Mose   Kenya 13:41.4
17 3 Tapio Kantanen   Finland 13:42.0
18 3 Tony Benson   Australia 13:42.8
19 5 Edmundo Warnke   Chile 13:43.6
20 2 Grant McLaren   Canada 13:43.8
21 5 Bob Finlay   Canada 13:44.0
22 5 Keisuke Sawaki   Japan 13:44.8
23 3 Boualem Rahoui   Algeria 13:45.0
24 2 Pedro Miranda   Mexico 13:45.2
25 4 Tolossa Kotu   Ethiopia 13:46.2
26 5 Bronisław Malinowski   Poland 13:48.2
27 1 Mohamed Gammoudi   Tunisia 13:49.8 Q
28 1 David Bedford   Great Britain 13:49.8 Q
29 3 Tekle Fitinsa   Ethiopia 13:50.4
30 4 Willy Polleunis   Belgium 13:52.6
31 3 Dick Tayler   New Zealand 13:56.2
32 1 Ben Jipcho   Kenya 13:56.8
33 1 Anders Gärderud   Sweden 13:57.2
34 4 Nikolay Puklakov   Soviet Union 13:57.6
35 1 Michael Keogh   Ireland 13:57.8
36 1 René Goris   Belgium 13:57.8
37 4 Mario Pérez   Mexico 13:58.2
38 3 Edward Sequeira   India 14:01.4
39 1 Arne Risa   Norway 14:01.6
40 5 Jürgen May   West Germany 14:06.6
41 4 Leonard Hilton   United States 14:07.2
42 2 Vladimir Afonin   Soviet Union 14:08.6
43 5 Gavin Thorley   New Zealand 14:11.6
44 1 Takaharu Koyama   Japan 14:12.6
45 4 Wolfgang Riesinger   West Germany 14:15.2
46 4 Knut Børø   Norway 14:15.8
47 4 Jørn Lauenbourg   Denmark 14:18.8
48 5 Hikmet Şen   Turkey 14:26.0
49 1 Carlos Lopes   Portugal 14:29.6
50 2 Raymond Zembri   France 14:34.4
51 3 John Hartnett   Ireland 14:34.6
52 2 Dick Quax   New Zealand 14:35.2
53 4 Evans Mogaka   Kenya 14:37.2
54 4 Ngwila Musonda   Zambia 14:37.4
55 2 Gert Kærlin   Denmark 14:39.2
56 5 Fritz Rüegsegger   Switzerland 14:54.4
57 1 Nji Esau Ade   Cameroon 15:19.6
58 5 Usaia Sotutu   Fiji 15:24.2
59 1 P. C. Suppiah[5]   Singapore 15:36.6
60 3 Abdullah Al-Mabrouk   Saudi Arabia 15:51.0
61 2 Carlos Cuque   Guatemala 15:53.4
1 Jadour Haddou   Morocco DNS
1 Siatka Badji   Senegal DNS
1 Dane Korica   Yugoslavia DNS
2 Mikhail Jelev   Bulgaria DNS
2 Ánge Pérez Jaime   Costa Rica DNS
2 Kerry O'Brian   Australia DNS
3 Jos Hermens   Netherlands DNS
4 Ardelham Khamis   Egypt DNS
5 Miruts Yifter   Ethiopia DNS
5 Crispín Quispe   Bolivia DNS

Final

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Rank Name Nationality Time
  Lasse Virén   Finland 13:26.4
  Mohamed Gammoudi   Tunisia 13:27.4
  Ian Stewart   Great Britain 13:27.6
4 Steve Prefontaine   United States 13:28.4
5 Emiel Puttemans   Belgium 13:30.8
6 Harald Norpoth   West Germany 13:32.6
7 Per Halle   Norway 13:34.4
8 Nikolay Sviridov   Soviet Union 13:39.4
9 Frank Eisenberg   East Germany 13:40.8
10 Javier Álvarez   Spain 13:41.8
11 Ian McCafferty   Great Britain 13:43.2
12 David Bedford   Great Britain 13:43.2
13 Juha Väätäinen   Finland 13:53.8
Mariano Haro   Spain DNS

Sources

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  • "Official Olympic Reports". la84foundation.org. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007.

References

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  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Athletics at the 1972 Munich Games: Men's 5000 metres". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  2. ^ Newnham, Blaine (September 10, 1972). "It's Pre versus the Europeans". Eugene Register-Guard. p. 1C.
  3. ^ Newnham, Blaine (September 11, 1972). "Pre's warning for 1976: 'He'd better watch out'". Eugene Register-Guard. p. 1B.
  4. ^ Newnham, Blaine (June 1, 1975). "Only first". Eugene Register-Guard. p. 1B.
  5. ^ "Official Olympic Reports: 1972 Munich Volume 3" (PDF). la84foundation.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007.
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